Power Ranger: Pathways
by Sketcher
Summary: In the year 1988, a young man unsure of his future is granted a suit of superhuman abilities by a mysterious wristband. Please review
1. Default Chapter

Power Ranger  
Episode 1: Pathways  
  
The setting sun cast an orange glow on Kyle Jenson's brown hair. His green eyes peered out the bus's window as trees flashed by until the bus came to a halting stop next to a run down general store. Kyle got up, grabbed his heavy duffle bag and walked off the bus. The young man watched as the bus hissed and continued down the road.  
"Well, well, well," came the sound of an old but pleasant voice. Kyle looked towards the store to see a 64 year-old man limping towards him on a cane.  
Kyle smiled. "Hey, grandpa," greeted Kyle as he hugged Bobby Jenson. The two looked each other over for a while until Kyle finally asked, "So how far is the cabin from here?"  
"Oh about three miles up the hill," said Bobby pointing his head towards a gravel road parallel to the store.  
"Great, where's the car?"  
Kyle's grandfather chuckled. "The car's at the cabin. Its not that far of a distance, besides the exercise will do you good." Bobby began to walk across the road with a smile on his face. Kyle readjusted the strap on his duffle bag and reluctantly followed.  
  
Half an hour later Bobby opened the door to his small but cozy cabin. A fire was shinning brightly in the hearth lighting up the whole living room. Kyle set his bag down next to the door and sat down on a small couch waiting anxiously while Bobby busily made coffee. Five minutes later Bobby limped over with a pot of coffee. He poured two cups resting on the coffee table with the hot liquid, grabbed one, and sat down in his rocking chair.  
Bobby's weary eyes studied his grandson with age-old wisdom. "My, my, my," chuckled the old man. "Graduating class of 1988. Some of us doubted you would make it."  
"You mean my parents," retorted Kyle. "That's why I'm here isn't it? I'm here because my parents didn't think I'd pass and now they're too scared to see what I'll do with the rest of my life."  
"Oh you're about half right," began Bobby. He sipped his coffee and continued. "Your parents were very proud of you for making it through high school, even if your grades weren't as high as they had expected. But you are right; they are concerned for your future. That's why they think it's best if you spend the fall here, with me in Meridian City."  
"And do what?" snapped Kyle.  
"What do you want to do?" asked Bobby coolly in response to his grandson's rising temper.  
Kyle shrugged. "I don't know."  
"Well," smiled Bobby. "That is why you are here. To figure out what you want to do. Here is where you decide if you want to get a full time job, go to college, or you could expand on those four years of martial arts you took."  
"Like I can get into college now. You saw my test scores." Kyle's face began to show signs of frustration at the revelation that he now had to grow up but didn't know how.  
Bobby frowned and limped over to a small drawer. Kyle stood up but couldn't see over his grandfather's hunching back as to what he was reaching for. "I've always found this to be a good luck charm," said Bobby as he handed Kyle a wristband. Kyle was amazed the unusual look of the wristband. A metallic black trapezoid, the size of Kyle's palm rested on the top of the wristband. The object was outlined in silver and a small, circular red gem rested in the middle of the trapezoid object. Kyle held the wristband in his hands, studying its unique shape.  
"What is it, some kind of watch?" asked Kyle curiously.  
Bobby shrugged. "Who knows? I found it in the dessert about twenty- five years ago, back when I would ride out there. There it was, just resting on top of a dune. All I've managed to make of it is that it's just a piece of fancy jewelry." Kyle half ignored his grandfather's words as he fingered the small red gem, studying its prefect round shape. For an instant Kyle caught the gem emit a soft red glow, but for only an instant, and then the soft glow was gone.  
  
"That'll be 10.95," informed Kyle to his customer as put the last of the old lady's groceries in a paper bag. Two weeks had past since Kyle's grandfather had given him the wristband, but so far the only luck the wristband had given Kyle was a low pay job as a cashier for a small grocery store in downtown Meridian City. Kyle looked over his cash register to see his next customer walking up. His eyes went wide when he saw a beautiful girl, about Kyle's age with curly blond hair carrying a basket as she approached him.  
"Hey," said the girl as she began to place her groceries on the counter. Kyle broke out of his trance and began to ring her groceries up.  
"Did you find everything all right?" asked Kyle quietly.  
"Yeah, Dan," said the woman with a smile.  
Kyle's head shot up to look the woman in the eye. "You know me?"  
The girl let out a small laugh. "Its on your nametag, hon." Kyle looked down to see his nametag resting on his green vest. Embarrassed, he continued to ring the girl's groceries. "You're new here, aren't you?"  
"Yeah. How'd you figure?" asked Kyle.  
The girl shrugged. "I haven't seen you working here before."  
Kyle started placing the girl's groceries in a paper sack. "Yeah that's because I just moved here from Sacramento. My parents thought it'd be best if I lived here with my grandfather while I decide what to do with my life."  
"I see," said the girl nodding. "I'm Erin." Erin extended her hand and Kyle shook it. "I go to school at Meridian University, any chance I'll see you there?"  
"Maybe. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet-that'll be 18.50."  
Erin pulled a twenty dollar bill out of her back pocket and handed it to Kyle. "Keep the change-I'll see you around," said Erin as she grabbed her bag and walked out of the store. Kyle couldn't but help watch her leave and turn the corner and out of sight. Suddenly Kyle heard a loud crashing sound come from the electronics isle. A figure dressed in a black hood stood clutching a boom box and several battery packs amid a pile of flashlights and other battery packs.  
"Hey!" shouted Kyle at the hooded figure. The figure glanced quickly at Kyle and then ran towards the emergency exit at the back of the store with the boom box and batteries. "Damn it," spat Kyle as he jumped over the counter and ran off after the hooded figure. The figure had already run out the door when Kyle swung the emergency exit open.  
Kyle managed to catch a glimpse of the figure making a sharp corner into a back alley. The 18 year-old pursued him down the alley until both the figure and Kyle had come to a dead end. Kyle stood facing the back of the hooded figure as it looked at the brick wall in front of it dumbfounds.  
  
"Now what the hell was all that about?" asked Kyle nearing the figure.  
The figure set the boom box and batteries on the damp concrete and hissed, "More than you will ever know." Then suddenly it spun around and out of it's palm shot a beam of blue energy. The beam hit Kyle in the chest, throwing him ten feet in the air and into a pile of trash bags. Kyle clutched the lightly charred flesh as smoke rose from his shirt. The figure then disappeared in a flash of blue light along with boom box and battery packs. Kyle stared down the alley, his face a mixture of bewilderment, confusion, and pain. 


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was setting while Kyle and Deputy Daniel Anderson stood outside the grocery store. The young police officer had been questioning Kyle about the shoplifting incident for almost forty minutes while Sheriff Jack Spencer investigated the store.  
"So you chased the perpetrator into a back alley and then what happened?" asked Corporal Anderson with a hard and serious tone.  
"Umm that's the weird part," began Kyle slowly. "When I chased this...guy.I guess he was a guy-anyway-when I cornered him in the alley, the guy turned around and shot some kind of laser beam at me."  
Anderson stared at Kyle without a hint of being amused. "This is no joking matter, Mr. Jenson, now I need the truth."  
"That is the truth," retorted Kyle. "I have a huge burn mark on my chest to prove it."  
"Are we done here?" asked Sheriff Spencer as he approached his partner.  
"Yeah," replied the deputy. Anderson shook his head and headed for the patrol car. "Talk to me when you can take this seriously." The young corporal's blond hair disappeared into the car and it sped off down the road. Kyle, frustrated at the police officer's narrow mindedness and his own stupidity in believing anyone would take him seriously kicked a rock down the sidewalk.  
  
Later that night Kyle sat on a bench in Meridian Park watching the traffic pass on a nearby highway. His mind was fixed on the hooded figure, on how someone could have power like that, and on how or what could stop him.  
"Hey," came the familiar voice of Erin. Kyle looked up and saw her sit down on the bench next to him. "What's going on?"  
Kyle shrugged, not really in the mood to talk. "Nothing really. Just thinking."  
"Oh-well there's a party going on downtown if you wanna go," said Erin trying to cheer up Kyle's obvious mood.  
"That's okay," said Kyle solemnly. The two sat there for a while, silent. Erin began to get up when Kyle said, "Erin, you've lived here for awhile right?"  
Erin sat back down with a proud smile. "All my life, why?"  
"I need to know where most of the crimes happen in this city."  
Erin looked over Kyle with suspicious eyes. "Why? Wanting to join a gang or something?"  
Kyle shook his head. "No nothing like that. There was a robbery at the grocery store earlier.and I want to catch the guy, and I'm going on a limb that he's wherever people like him hang out."  
  
"Don't you think you should let the cops handle that?" asked Erin skeptically.  
"This is different, trust me."  
Erin nodded. "Okay, I will-most thugs and gangs and stuff usually hang out in the warehouse distract. The cops don't even patrol in that part of the city, I guess they don't think crime exists in the remote parts of the city."  
Kyle let out a small smile and jumped out of the bench. "Thanks, Erin." He then grabbed his bag and ran off.  
Rein rolled her eyes. "Psycho," she mumbled under her breath. She then couldn't help but smile at Kyle as he ran out of the park.  
  
Kyle was about five miles from downtown on foot. His heart pounded with anticipation and fear. Kyle rested his back against a brick building for a moment and then remembered. Reaching into his bag, Kyle pulled out the wristband with the trapezoid shaped object on it. He slipped it onto his left wrist. "Just don't get me killed," said Kyle to the wristband and himself. The teenager began to walk again when he noticed a bright flash of light appear in a parking garage across the street. Kyle immediately ran across the street bringing a car to a screeching halt two feet from his body.  
Kyle ran up to the second floor of the parking garage where he saw the hooded figure in the middle of the garage. The figure was kneeling down working on something obscured from Kyle's sight. "Hey!" shouted Kyle.  
The hooded figure spun around. "You again," hissed the figure. It raised it's palms and shot two blue beams of energy at Kyle. The beams hit Kyle and flung him onto a car's hood. Kyle could now see what the hooded figure was working on. He didn't have to be from space to realize the figure was building a small bomb.  
"What's the bomb for?" asked Kyle as he clutched his burning stomach and shoulder.  
"Soon this pathetic city and all that reside within it will be destroyed, eliminated from the face of this mud hole of a planet," said the hooded figure with a hissing voice as he closed in on Kyle.  
"Why?"  
"For reasons you will never know, human." The figure raised his palms again. Kyle shielded his face with his arms. The red gem inside the wristband instantly began to glow brightly. Both Kyle and the hooded figure lowered their arms in dismay. Kyle watched as red streaks of energy encircled his arm and then his body.  
The red energy began to increase, causing Kyle's whole body to glow in a bath of red light. Kyle watched as the streaks of energy formed a leather-like red suit over his body, and as a plain, gold medallion rested on Kyle's chest. Then his hands and feet glowed until they were covered with a pair of white gloves and boots. The energy crackled as a white belt formed over Kyle's waste accompanied with a small, silver gun. Finally the energy intensified on Kyle's head until it formed a red helmet over it. The red glow ceased and Kyle now looked at the hooded figure through a circular visor.  
"Whoa," exclaimed Kyle through a silver mouthpiece. He now felt stronger, faster, like he could almost fly now.  
"Not again," groaned the hooded figure. It then removed its hood revealing a grotesque mesh of orange skin accompanied with a set of glowing yellow eyes. The creature then fired another energy blast at Kyle. Kyle easily ducked and watched as the energy beam took out half of a concrete support beam.  
"Damn, I can get used to this!" but Kyle's excitement was cut short when another energy blast hit him in his side. Sparks shot out of his red suit, but Kyle could barely feel the heat from the blast he had felt as a normal human. With new vigor, Kyle charged at the creature. He jumped into the air, nearly grazing the parking garage's roof, and drop kicked the creature. The creature was hurtled twenty feet back; it jumped back up and fired a barrage of energy beams. Kyle did a cartwheel in the air, dodging almost all of the energy beams save the last three which impacted on his torso. Kyle fell on his back a little dazed, but he quickly got up and reached for the silver pistol resting at his side. "You wanna play it that way then fine!" Kyle pressed the pistol's trigger. A bolt of red energy shot out of the pistol's nozzle and hit the creature in its stomach. Sparks flew as the creature fell to the floor. Firing his laser pistol, Kyle ran at the creature with inhuman speed. The creature fell to the ground, this time near his bomb. Kyle nearly lost the chance to kick the creature's hand away from the small red button on the bomb. The two forces then engaged into a furious display of punches, kicks, and acrobatics. Kyle jumped into the air as a beam of energy passed between his legs and melted a car's roof. He then pressed his foot against the creature's body, did a back flip, and within a slip second, shot the bomb and the creature. Kyle stood above the wounded creature as it lay sprawling on the floor unable to get up.  
"This isn't over for you!" hissed the creature through a small mouth in the middle of its orange mouth. "Other's will try to do what I have come to do. And they will succeed and easily tear you apart along the way!" At that the creature vanished in a flash of light. Kyle's helmeted face looked over at the smoking ruins of the bomb.  
For a while Kyle stood in the parking garage still and silent as smoke from the fight rose and drifted away, and then, "WHOOOOOOO!!!" shouted Kyle, raising his arms into the air and dancing around the parking garage. "That was awesome!" then suddenly Kyle stopped and looked at his red suit. "Now how do I get out of this?" Instantly the suit emitted a red glow and disappeared leaving Kyle in his ordinary clothes. Kyle looked down at the wristband and smiled. "This is gonna be fun."  
  
Bobby Jenson glanced between tying a hook on his fishing rod and the clock, which read 11:30. There was a loud slam as Kyle burst into the cabin and shut the door behind him. A huge grin rested on the young man's face as he sat down on the couch.  
"Well," began Bobby resting his fishing pole on the coffee table. "What's got you in such a good mood?"  
Kyle shrugged happily. "Today wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be."  
Bobby let out a small laugh and pointed at the wristband still resting on Kyle's arm. "Didn't I tell you that thing would bring you good luck?"  
Kyle looked down at the wristband and grinned. "You don't know the half of it." 


End file.
